564-572 Fisgard Street

Downtown Victoria Tour

This building at 564-572 Fisgard Street and 1704-1708 Government Street was designed and built in 1946 by architect David C. Frame for George Joe. For most of its history it has been used primarily as restaurants and it is being used for that purpose today, with I Kyu Noodles at 564 Fisgard Street and the Ocean Garden Restaurant at 568 Fisgard Street.

This building was designed and built in 1946 by architect David C. Frame for George Joe. It was designed as a commercial building with a series of three shopfronts on Fisgard Street. Two of these Fisgard Street shopfronts are now occupied by the Ocean Garden Restaurant.

Local architectural historians have suggested that the absence of upper floors with residential space, a key feature of older buildings in Victoria’s Chinatown, is indicative of Chinatown’s decline as a residential district in the 1940’s, as people started moving out of the downtown and into suburban residential districts following the Second World War.

Architectural historians have also commented on the fusion of western and Asian styles in this building, with the storefronts capped with parapets designed to resemble pagodas.

For most of its history, this building has been occupied by restaurants and that is still the case today. It is often referred to as the Foo Hong Building, after a Chinese restaurant called Foo Hong Chop Suey that occupied 564 Fisgard Street for over five decades.